Alexandria, VA - The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) is recognizing John C. Steinmetz, with the William B. Heroy Jr. Award for Distinguished Service to AGI. He has served as a leader between AGI and the Association of American State Geologists for two decades and he has been a long-standing member of the GeoRef Advisory Committee.

In 1993, Steinmetz served as an advisor for the three-phase National Geoscience Data Repository System project, which led the way in improving access to critical geoscience data, such as rock cores and cuttings, well logs, paleontological and geochemical samples, and digital seismic data. The grant that funded this project is historically the single largest grant that AGI has received. The project resulted in the transfer of at risk geoscience data from the oil and gas industry to the public domain, or provided open access to data. Steinmetz also served as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Preservation of Geoscience Data and Collections.

Steinmetz has been a leader on the AGI GeoRef Advisory Committee, having been an active member since 1996. He has played a pivotal role in expanding GeoRef's coverage of state survey publications, especially open-file reports, by engaging each state geological survey to enhance the cooperation between state surveys and GeoRef. He also encouraged development of geographic search options for GeoRef data on the various platforms and GeoRef subsets. Additionally, Steinmetz served on AGI's Executive Committee as Secretary from 2000-2002.

Steinmetz graduated with his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in geology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Marine Geology and Geophysics. He has been a State Geologist for both Montana and Indiana. He is currently the emeritus State Geologist for Indiana and is an Editor/Indexer for AGI's GeoRef.

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The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.